Category: College

College is ticking away, and you need to find an internship – fast. As you probably know, having internship experience nowadays is vital. It gives you real-world experience, teaches you how to professionally present yourself, and can lead to a full-time offer after graduation. Luckily, that’s what happened to me!

But finding internships to apply for can be difficult. Where do you even begin? Take out a notebook or open a new Word document and try out these:

My alma mater is Ramapo College of New Jersey, which also happens to be where YouTube star Grace Helbig went to college. During my time there (which I loved), I always dreamed of having Grace come speak at my graduation ceremony.

This Friday, I will walk across the stage of the Prudential Center, shake President Mercer’s hand, get a photo taken, receive that empty diploma holder thing, and then walk off stage. But here’s the thing: I already graduated.

The last time I posted on my blog was in August 2012. It’s obviously been a while.

Now that I’m finished with college, I have a little more time on my hands. Well, I still have my internship in New York City, and I’m in the process of job hunting, but no more essays, exams, business simulations, or group projects to worry about.

My degree will come in the mail some time in January. Graduating early is very surreal, and it certainly hasn’t hit me yet. I feel like I’m still on a holiday vacation, and I’ll return to campus at the end of January. When my friends go back to college and I don’t, that’s going to be weird. And my Commencement ceremony is in May, so that itself feels so far away.

But that’s enough talk. So what’s going to happen here since I’ll be writing again?

My plans are to write about otaku things (e.g. anime, Japanese culture, j-pop, etc.), little adventures in New York City, technology, and social media. I’m planning to start vlogging again pretty soon, so new videos will get posted here with a little more behind the scenes content written out on the post. My Tumblr will stay the same: reblogs of anime gifs mostly, but here I’ll actually be writing out thoughts.

Sounds like fun, right? I’ll probably be testing out the waters as I go, but you can expect a post at least once a week!

I drink coffee almost every day. All coffee lovers agree that when they were little, they hated the bitter stuff. Most people also agree that it smells way better than it actually tastes. However, I still love the stuff, but that got me thinking: why?

I got hooked on coffee with the Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino. I know some “coffee-haters” that still indulge in this guilty pleasure (which I consider hypocritical). I think that was 8th grade. By high school, I started using it to help me stay awake. Demanding honors classes and so many extracurricular activities and commitments were sucking away hours of sleep. Then I got a part-time job: more coffee please?

My blog needs more attention, but it’s finals week. I’m glad to say that I have only one more final to take tomorrow, and my completed finals both went well, so I’m quite confident! 🙂

And although I’ve been ignoring my blog, I’ve been using Facebook as a procrastination tool just like everyone else on campus.

So yesterday, I realized that one of my Facebook friends upgraded her profile page to the new Timeline look. Facebook is changing crap once again, what a surprise. I decided that I may as well do the same and jump on the train early. Apparently, Facebook is giving us about a week to upgrade early to Timeline, so we can review what’s on it and make changes if need be. But regardless it you do this or not, everyone’s profile page will be a thing of the past on December 21. And if you don’t like it, that’s too bad…

For more about Timeline, Facebook employee Cait shall explain in this little video below…

So I searched “timeline,” clicked on the page, scrolled past the description stuff that I had read months ago, and upgraded. My profile, and just my profile, was upgraded instantly. I noticed that the profile picture shrinks to somewhat of a larger thumbnail while the new “cover photo” gets the attention and space at the top of the page. I decided to add a nice pic of my friends and I from a recent Semi-Formal dance we went to.

I started looking through my profile. Seems more visual; photos are larger and there’s less text. I couldn’t help but keep thinking about the Tumblr interface while scrolling on my page. And in true “timeline” fashion, one can easily jump around the times of events and stuff more easily, whether that be days, months, or years ago.

Here’s my opinion on it:

The Good:

More visual. Regardless of how much we want to accept it, people today want things quickly, and even reading can slow down an experience. Facebook is used by many for photo sharing, so a larger photo presence makes sense.

The “cover photo” is a great way to even further express a highlight in your life.

Easier to go back and find those “lost posts” or memories.

On every post, you can click on a little star icon to “feature” that post. Doing this expands this post to the full width of the Timeline. It’s a good way to highlight, for example, photos from a graduation or party.

Timeline may include everything from the day you got a FB profile, but it gives you the option to make whatever you don’t want out there private.

Information page is cleaner and more organized.

The advertisements are squished more-so to the right, and take up less space. I didn’t even realize they were there at first!

The Bad:

Forced on all users on December 21. No choice.

While the cover photo is great, the profile pic shrinks to a square. Hmmph!

Potential won’t be fully met. Not all users posts where they jog or use Facebook to check-in to Places. Even I, as tech savvy as I am, don’t use all of Facebook’s features. Most people use it for photos and status updates.

Seems to rip off Tumblr…

The new “Activity Log” page isn’t better than the “Recent Activity” of the old profile.

Although it’s more visual, it doesn’t flow for me. I liked having a profile where I could read posts straight down and scroll. Now, my eyes are doing this zig-zag thing with Timeline’s two columns, and it’s annoying.

In my opinion, Facebook needs to stop changing things that already work, and if they decide to change something, at least make sure it’s 100% better… and Timeline has it’s flaws.

What Facebook should have done…

Instead of force all users to use Timeline as the “new profile page,” make it a new option. So everyone keeps their profile pages, and if the user or his or her friends wants to use Timeline, a button could link you to that page.OR…
Take the good stuff and apply it to the profile, and keep it as a profile page… simply saying, improve it, and not reinvent it!

And smartphone apps aren’t showing profiles as timelines yet, but if you use the mobile website (eg. Facebook via Safari on the iPhone), timeline is there. Also, no timelines for Pages yet…

So what do you think about Timeline? Of course, most people complain whenever Facebook makes a change, but usually they get over it. One person may post that he will leave Facebook for good… but he won’t.

So, leave me a comment voicing your opinion on Timeline! Do you agree with what I think of it? Do you like it more? Maybe you hate it? Comment please!

The internet is a big place; it’s ever-so expanding and there’s just so much out there to discover. And although Google can help you meander through the expansive jungle of the Net, there are a few sites that are brilliant but aren’t as well-known. Here’s a list of sites, in no particular order, that I find super useful and thought I’d share…

When it comes to PowerPoints or Keynotes or any kind of presentation, you usually have two types. First, there are people who plop overused Word-Art, stretched and dis-proportioned images, and bland text boxes with no effort with design (by using templates) or animations. And to make it worse, they read directlyfrom the slides when presenting. Even adults do this! It’s a perfect blend of a presentation-fail smoothie. And then, on the other hand, you have the person who keeps his audience awake (think: Steve Jobs’ Keynotes). No templates, fanciness, and most importantly, the ability to keep the audience actually interested.

Unfortunately, if you’re not too into design or tech-savvy, you usually fall into the first category by default. But that’s what Prezi was created for. Simply, Prezi is a free site that lets you create better presentations. Instead of boring slides, you have something like a big canvas or bulletin board. You can then easily place in your text (even YouTube videos, PDFs, and much more) onto your presentation. But what makes Prezi unique is its “pan-and-zoom” effects. Watch the video below and it’s pretty self explanatory.

And another useful aspect about Prezi is that its all online. No downloading required; you just need a web browser to create. And the same applies for presenting too. No more worrying about have your formatting or fonts lost when presenting on another computer; gone is the inconvenience of any compatibility issues.

How I wish I discovered Khan Academy much earlier in my academic career! It’s a free to use site that features over 2,700 video lessons on a myriad of topics including Algebra, Art History, Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Computer Science, Finance, History, Physics, Probability, and much more. What makes Khan Academy great is that it is free, and therefore, open for anyone to use (not just students)!

As of today, according to their site, 88,576,913 lessons have been delivered since the project’s inception, and that number is sure to grow at an exponential rate.

All the videos are on YouTube, so it’s easy to share the learning with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. And in addition to the videos, there are 244 practice exercises for you to use as well!

So, if you’re a college student that ends up with a terrible professor, at least you have a Plan B… or a Plan K, I suppose.

No matter how much you love English, literature can be difficult. Many high school and college students are aware of SparkNotes, but who knows about Shmoop? No one.

Don’t get me wrong, SparkNotes can be a lifesaver sometimes, but it’s flooded with advertising, and sometimes what it has to offer pertaining to your assigned reading isn’t all too great or helpful.

Shmoop is da poop! ‘Nuff said.

Shmoop follows the same idea as SparkNotes: when it comes to literature, it provides a summary, themes, analysis, quizzes, etc. on many different works. But Shmoop, in my opinion, excels at some key things in comparison to SparkNotes.

First, when it comes to summaries, Shmoop usually gives you more detail. And the way the summary is presented is in bullets, so they’re easier to read. And Shmoop gives you a lot of bullets for each chapter, so if you read the chapter in the book, and don’t have a clue what’s happening, Shmoop will help!

Shmoop’s mobile apps are great on-the-go, but they’re not free.

Second, the writers at Shmoop write well and in plain English; don’t get me wrong, so do the writers at SparkNotes, but Shmoop does have a bit of a curve. Shmoop’s writers throw in pop culture references to make the content more relevant to you. They realize what’s boring and what’s important, and they actually flat-out tell you in the summary. And to top it off, these writers are graduates of Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkley, so they’re legit.

And a little disclaimer: Please actually read whatever your teacher/professor assigns. Depending on guides alone usually doesn’t help and you’re probably cheating yourself out of a good piece of work! You never know!

And lastly, Shmoop doesn’t stop there. Like SparkNotes, they offer iOSapps for their articles, but they even have eBook versions for Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. (They don’t, however, offer any printed versions of they’re stuff unfortunately. SparkNotes does since it’s now owned by Barnes & Noble.) You can also easily cite a Shmoop analysis for a research paper. And Shmoop also offers content in other subjects too, such as Biology, Civics, US History, and Pre-Algebra as well as SAT/ACT/AP prep!

Everyone who uses YouTube has probably come across this dilemma: “I like this song/audio on this one YouTube video, but it’s not available for download anywhere.” Zamzar is your solution.

All you have to do is go to their site. Click URL. Paste the video URL, choose the format you want it to be converted to (eg. mp3), and enter your email address. Wait for the video to “convert” right on the site. When the video’s complete, get ready to receive an email. When you get the email from Zamzar, you then click your special hyperlink on it that redirects you to a page that lets you download your converted file. Simple as that!

The Zamzar website.

You can even convert a YouTube video to another video format to download, but there is a downfall which I will later explain. And, you can upload files (up to 100 MB) to convert too.

What’s nice about Zamzar is that it’s free, it’s easy, there are a lot of formats to choose from, and it requires no software to download.

The bad things are that receiving your email can be slow sometimes, and while quality for audio conversions are good, video quality is kind of bad.

You could always pay Zamzar for as low as $7 a month for perks such as larger file sizes and higher priority for receiving the hyperlink emails, but I’m cheap, so I don’t know about you, but I ain’t paying.

And another disclaimer: Don’t steal music people! Stealing is bad and illegal. Use Zamzar wisely for personal use.

Everyone who uses YouTube probably has also asked this question: “How can I download a YouTube video?” Zamzar can convert videos for you, but you lose a lot of quality doing so. Fortunately, there’s KeepVid.

Just like Zamzar, KeepVid is free and it’s all online: no software download required! But it is a little different. The best way to describe it would be through an example…

KeepVid gives you a lot of options for downloading your converted video. The quality they provide is second-to-none.

Let’s say your creating a PointPoint for a project. You find a video on YouTube that’s perfect for your project. But you don’t want to plop a URL on a slide because that takes you out of the presentation and onto YouTube through a web browser. It’s just not streamlined. KeepVid can help you easily put that video right onto your slide, and you won’t even need access to the internet to play it!

First: keepvid.com. Next, copy the URL from the video and paste it in the bar. Click ‘download.’ (The button doesn’t actually download the video right away; it “converts” it). Note that you will have to run a Java aplet; acccept the pop-up. It won’t eat your computer or anything.

In a few seconds, your results will appear. Under the title of the video and a thumbnail, you get a small list of formats to download in (such as .flv and .mp4). I personally find .mp4 the most accessible. And what’s great about KeepVid is that you lose not quality whatsoever! If the video is available for 1080p HD on YouTube, you’ll have the options to download the video in either 360p, 480p, 720p, or 1080p. Super useful.

And, I promise for the last time, a disclaimer: Don’t steal videos without crediting the creator! And downloading music videos and stuff like that is bad, so yeah.

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So there you have it. Perhaps you already knew of these sites, but most likely you didn’t. Use them! I certainly do. They’re free and available to everyone.

And be sure to leave me a comment telling me what you think! Are any of these sites useful to you?